Hasta La Gadget!

Italy’s Autorità garante della concorrenza e del mercato, roughly equivalent to this America’s FTC, has fined Apple and Samsung a total of $15 million for the companies’ practice of forcing updates on consumers that may slow or break their devices. The amount may be a drop in the bucket, but it’s a signal that governments won’t always let this type of behavior fly.

The “unfair commercial practices” are described by the AGCM as follows:

The two companies have induced consumers – by insistently proposing to proceed with the download and also because of the significant information asymmetry of consumers vis-a-vis the producers – to install software updates that are not adequately supported by their devices, without adequately informing them, nor providing them an effective way to recover the full functionality of their devices.

Sounds about right!

In case you don’t remember, essentially Apple was pushing updates to iPhones last year that caused performance issues with older phones. Everyone took this as part of the usual conspiracy theory that Apple slows phones to get you to upgrade, but it turns out to have been more like a lack of testing before they shipped.

Samsung, for its part, was pushing Android Mashmallow updates to a number of its devices, but failed to consider that it would cause serious issues in Galaxy Note 4s — issues it then would charge to repair.

The issue here wasn’t the bad updates exactly, but the fact that consumers were pressured into accepting them, at cost to themselves. It would be one thing if the updates were simply made available and these issues addressed as they came up, but both companies “insistently suggested” that the updates be installed despite the problems.

In addition to this, Apple was found to have “not adequately informed consumers about some essential characteristics of lithium batteries, such as their average duration and deterioration factors, nor about the correct procedures to maintain, verify and replace batteries in order to preserve full functionality of devices.” That would be when Apple revealed to iPhone 6 owners that their batteries were not functioning correctly and that they’d have to pay for a replacement if they wanted full functionality. This information, the AGCM, suggests, ought to have been made plain from the beginning.

Samsung gets €5 million in fines and Apple gets €10 million. Those may not affect either company’s bottom line, but they are the maximum possible fines, so it’s symbolic as well. If a dozen other countries were to come to the same conclusion, the fines would really start to add up. Apple has already made some amends, but if it fell afoul of the law it still has to pay the price.

The flu vaccine remains the best proactive way to protect yourself and your loved ones from the influenza virus. But this upcoming flu season, there’ll be a new weapon available against the nasty disease. On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration announced their approval of a new antiviral treatment for the flu,…

Read more…

Remember a time when the handset to purchase was a Nokia? In particular, the small 88XX models that were extremely suave and had an elegant look to it. Well, the rise of smartphones literally killed off Nokia, but thankfully we have HMD Global who rode on the wave of nostalgia to take on the Nokia mantle and have slowly but surely began the process of bringing Nokia back to the lips of mainstream smartphone users. It is still early days, but the recent introduction of the Nokia 7.1 harks back to a time when the Finnish firm delivered quality handsets.

The Nokia 7.1 is touted to be the first smartphone to come with PureDisplay screen technology, elevating the user’s viewing experience to the next level by offering a high contrast ratio, greater clarity and enhanced colors regardless of the content that it displays. We are talking about a 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio here, where the Full HD+ 5.84″ and 19:9 screen ratio display will work great even when you are under bright sunlight.

Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 chipset, it has been specially optimized for content consumption with first-class graphics, performance and battery efficiency enhancements. The clever use of different metal finishes will bring everything together seamlessly, capturing the essence of elegance with its dual-anodized aluminium diamond cut colored edges. In addition, the clever implementation of highly sensitive ZEISS Optics 12MP and 5MP dual cameras with two-phase detection behind opens up an opportunity to enjoy fast, accurate autofocus and great looking portrait shots.

In terms of its operating system, you get a pure Android experience with Android One, letting you minimize on bloatware while maximizing what Google has in mind for Android users. This translates to receiving three years of monthly security patches and two years of OS updates, guaranteed. Arriving with the ability to handle the Android 9.0 update, the Nokia 7.1 certainly looks appealing in its Gloss Midnight Blue and Gloss Steel shades, with a starting price point of $349.

Press Release
[ Nokia 7.1 helps to roll back the glory years copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Italy’s Autorità garante della concorrenza e del mercato, roughly equivalent to this America’s FTC, has fined Apple and Samsung a total of $15 million for the companies’ practice of forcing updates on consumers that may slow or break their devices. The amount may be a drop in the bucket, but it’s a signal that governments won’t always let this type of behavior fly.

The “unfair commercial practices” are described by the AGCM as follows:

The two companies have induced consumers – by insistently proposing to proceed with the download and also because of the significant information asymmetry of consumers vis-a-vis the producers – to install software updates that are not adequately supported by their devices, without adequately informing them, nor providing them an effective way to recover the full functionality of their devices.

Sounds about right!

In case you don’t remember, essentially Apple was pushing updates to iPhones last year that caused performance issues with older phones. Everyone took this as part of the usual conspiracy theory that Apple slows phones to get you to upgrade, but it turns out to have been more like a lack of testing before they shipped.

Samsung, for its part, was pushing Android Mashmallow updates to a number of its devices, but failed to consider that it would cause serious issues in Galaxy Note 4s — issues it then would charge to repair.

The issue here wasn’t the bad updates exactly, but the fact that consumers were pressured into accepting them, at cost to themselves. It would be one thing if the updates were simply made available and these issues addressed as they came up, but both companies “insistently suggested” that the updates be installed despite the problems.

In addition to this, Apple was found to have “not adequately informed consumers about some essential characteristics of lithium batteries, such as their average duration and deterioration factors, nor about the correct procedures to maintain, verify and replace batteries in order to preserve full functionality of devices.” That would be when Apple revealed to iPhone 6 owners that their batteries were not functioning correctly and that they’d have to pay for a replacement if they wanted full functionality. This information, the AGCM, suggests, ought to have been made plain from the beginning.

Samsung gets €5 million in fines and Apple gets €10 million. Those may not affect either company’s bottom line, but they are the maximum possible fines, so it’s symbolic as well. If a dozen other countries were to come to the same conclusion, the fines would really start to add up. Apple has already made some amends, but if it fell afoul of the law it still has to pay the price.

There’s something to be said about comfy. Your favorite pillow or blanket might not be the best on the market, but they make you feel better. Even if it has a pizza stain that’s shaped like Ohio. The Lexus ES 300h (starting at $41,410) is like a comf…